When a bomb goes of in the Kremlin of Russia, the IMF is implicated for the crime and any and all ties to them are dissavowed by the US government. Now armed with only the barest of resources at hand, Ethan Hunt and crew set out to uncover who was responsible and what their grand scheme truly is.

Say what you want about Tom Cruise, but that man is a good actor. And a few people may not know Brad Bird(a criminal offense) but you’ll recognize all these other movies he’s directed; The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and UP. All animated movies yes, but all good movies and ones we all love. What comes of it? An awesome movie.

Ghost Protocol is 133 minutes of an action thriller that doesn’t try to lump huge amounts of exposition on you. All the characters feel fleshed out for those that are new, such as Paula Patton’s Agent Carter, a real action woman and really a first for Mission Impossible for making the women in the movie more than just for looks or to further the plot. Here, she kicks a lot of ass. Jeremy Renner also gets to have a much more interesting character in Agent Brandt, also new to the team, but in a much more circumstantial way. Simon Peg returns from the previous film, and he’s much more interesting and just funny as hell whenever you see him. Honestly he gets some of the best lines in the movie, or his interactions with other characters makes for great scenes.

What works so well about this movie is that it takes the plot and keeps it moving without it feeling like its too much or really like it was missing crucial elements. I’m sure upon a second viewing I might be able to nit-pick, but that’s really not the point of this endeavor. The new MI just gives you an urgent mission for the team and forces them to work with what they have at hand, though that admittedly is still more than most people would imagine they would have. I guess the IMF was just really damn hooked up.

The movie starts with a chase scene, a man runs from armed men, meets a contact and is double crossed. Then we jump to a Russian prison, where Benji(Simon Peg) is helping Agent Carter break Ethan out of jail. We find out that the previously shown man was an agent and former comrade of theirs and that what they where after has now become priority one. Someone has launch codes for Nuclear weapons and a buyer, a target Hunt was formerly following is looking to buy to possibly start a Nuclear war.

Heading to the Kremlin, they break in to apprehend a nuclear extremist, the mission is compromised by said bad guy, by the Kremlin being blown up. After this, the new team is left to find the culprit themselves and prevent a Nuclear war.

Even before this is turn of events for the team, there’s action all throughout. You’re never really given too much that’s told to you, save for the points of Ethans’ reason for being in the Russian prison, we hear them talk about something, then they go to action right after. This is something that most action movies, or even adventure films tend to forget. Show us don’t tell us. We see them preparing for an operation, we see them execute it and then we see what happens afterwards, success or failure we see it all.

If you remember those other films I mentioned above from Brad Bird, you’ll know that he’s a very good visual story teller. You see whats set up, what may be coming next, and he gives you multiple things at a time to pay attention to, but its never overwhelming. Its entertaining from the first moment you see what’s going on.

In some cases, for a man who directed some very beloved animated family films, the action here is pretty visceral for what you might expect. Some serious hand-to-hand bouts and intense chase scene fill this flick with so much to see its just fun to watch.

Being entirely shot in IMAX helps a lot with the visual quality and reasoning for it being sold as such when many earlier films only had certain scenes or shots in IMAX format. And also on the technical side, Brad’s expertise in animation has helped to keep most of the visual effects here still feel grounded, despite a couple that are there for it to just look cool. Thought that’s not entirely a bad thing.

Ultimately this is a really damn entertaining movie and a great debut for Brad Bird as a director for live-action, making me eager to see what else he may do. Tom Cruise is good here, and the supporting cast also is given ample screen time to stay interesting and very relevant.

I’d see this one as an evening show, and you’re not gonna miss out in IMAX either.